Post Politics Now Biden and McCarthy discuss debt ceiling in Oval Office meeting

Today, President Biden welcomed House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to the Oval Office for his first one-on-one meeting with the president. Though the White House said the two men would discuss “a range of issues,” the encounter came amid a tense standoff between the parties on raising the debt ceiling. Republicans are insisting on as-yet-unspecified spending cuts in exchange for their support, a posture they didn’t take under President Donald Trump or previous Republican presidents. Biden and the Democrats say they will not allow the nation’s responsibility to pay its bills become a bargaining chip.